Modi’s choice for Kerala Governor

After removing governors who could cause any discomfort to Narendra Modi and his authoritarian regime, Modi in collusion with his saffron fellow travellers is now set to reward those who did him and his comrades a good turn in the hour of their need.

First one to earn this reward is none other than former Chief Justice of India Justice P Sathasivam, tipped with Kerala Governorship.

As the media has reported, Justice Sathasivam granted relief to Modi’s right hand man and now BJP president Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, without which Shah may still be languishing in jail as an under trial in a murder case. Where was the question of Modi imposing him on the BJP in such an event? He also commuted the death sentence of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, (a self-confessed terrorist who killed many in the Youth Congress office at Raisina Road) on the specious ground of too much time having elapsed, never mind the same argument did not hold ground for allowing Afzal Guru to live on, knowing full well that Afzal had no direct hand in Parliament attack. But Bhullar’s hanging would have embarrassed the Akali Dal and the BJP, because they would have been forced to oppose each other, with SAD supporting Bhullar and BJP having no option but to support his hanging. So Sathasivam solved this tangle for the NDA partners by commuting his death sentence and how?

He upheld the conviction of Sanjay Dutt in the 1993 bomb blast case, even though the court had already held that Sanjay’s trial under TADA was a mistrial. But then the thirst of vengeance of the saffron brigade would not be quenched if someone were not to be convicted for the 1993 blasts and who better than Sanjay Dutt for he was publicly trying to help out the Muslim victims of the Shiv Sena attacks in the wake of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Bombay in 1992. There are other judgments also of the honourable much venerated former chief justice which clearly demonstrate his political leanings.

That reminds me of another Judge of Delhi High Court, Justice Mohammad Shamim, who according to Arun Jaitely was so honest that he used to cycle down to Tis Hazari courts when he was a district and sessions judge. Justice Shamim discharged LK Advani in the Jain Hawala case and thanks to that one judgment all the innumerable politicians were also let off while the investigating officer O P Sharma was convicted for ostensibly seeking bribe from Advani. Justice Shamim retired when the NDA regime was in office and Advani the Union Home Minister. Immediately he was appointed the Minority Commission chairman in the year 2000 and the Commission’s role was discussed widely in the media when it sat and twiddled its thumb during the anti-Muslim Gujarat pogrom under Narendra Modi in 2002. Soon as his Minority Commission term expired he was made the chairman of another commission and till not so long ago he was earning consultancy fees from Urban Improvements, owning vast tracts of land in Faridabad known by the name of Greenfield. Perhaps that arrangement is still continuing.